BISC 102 STUDY GUIDES - The predators and scavengers which...

Sometime between 5 and 14 thousand years ago, all of these and Many other mammals and birds living throughout north and south America became extinct. The question is, why? There are many Theories, but most center around two known facts At the close of the Ice age, the world climate underwent drastic Changes. In most places, rainfall was reduced and the yearly cycle Of seasons became more extreme. These factors may have affected the plant eaters directly by disrupting mating and migration Or indirectly by reducing the quantity and quality of plants on Which they fed. During the same time span, kill sites show that early man in North America had developed the weapons and culture which allowed Him to become more effective in hunting these big plant eaters. Man’s hunting or other activities may also have been a factor. In extinction Whatever the cause or causes, once the plant eaters disappeared,

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Unformatted text preview: The predators and scavengers which fed on them would also have Became extinct. FROM LA BREA WEBSITE::: Extinct mammals, like the saber-toothed cats and mammoths, and birds, like Merriam's Teratorn and Grinnell's Eagle, roamed the Los Angeles Basin for several hundred thousand years. These and other extinct species were entrapped and their remains were preserved between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago at Rancho La Brea, during the last of four great Ice Ages at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. Dire wolves are the most common large mammals from Rancho La Brea, with several thousand individuals represented in the Page museum collections. The remains of over 2,000 individuals of saber-toothed cat rank second....
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